Construction and Building Materials 170 (2018) 55–65

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Full-scale static and dynamic experiments of hybrid CLT–concrete

composite floor
Khai Quang Mai, Aron Park, Khoa Tan Nguyen, Kihak Lee ⇑
Department of Architectural Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

h i g h l i g h t s

Provides significant information about the behavior of hybrid CLT–concrete floor.

The natural frequency of the hybrid floor is 25% higher than the CLT floor.

The damping ratio was around 1% and will be decreased with concrete topping.

The hybrid floor significantly enhanced bending capacity, from 3–5 times higher.

The analytical method generally underestimated the capacity of the specimens.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) concrete composite floor can successfully address the issues of con-
Received 26 December 2017 ventional wood product and become an attractive alternative material for conventional reinforced con-
Accepted 5 March 2018 crete floors in mid to high-rise building. The purpose of this research was to fully evaluate the
capacity of this novel hybrid composite material under both dynamic and static conditions, before such
this hybrid system becomes widely employed. This was achieved by performing a full-scale testing of five
Keywords: floor specimens. One specimen was designed according to Eurocode 5 to satisfy the design load for com-
Cross laminated timber (CLT)
mon office buildings, and four specimens were prepared with a concrete topping with different connector
CLT–concrete composite floor
Dynamic test
types, connector angles, and connector spacing. The test results illustrated that the CLT–concrete floor
Four-point bending test specimens had excellent structural performance in terms of strength capacity, 3 –5 times higher than
Hybrid timber structure the conventional CLT floor. The vibration performances of this composite floors were also enhanced,
resulting in a remarkably effective use of this innovative materials.
Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction the excellent characteristics of CLT in terms of strength and impact

Cross laminated timber (CLT) has been successfully applied in
several multistory buildings worldwide, including the Forte build-
ing (a 10-story apartment building in Melbourne, Australia), and
the Stadthaus (a 9-story residential building in Hackney, London).
They all exceeded the current limitation for timber buildings,
which is up to five stories tall [10]. After these multi-story projects
were completed, several guidelines were published for CLT manu-
facturing and structural design. The CLT handbook (2013) [23],
which addressed the design and construction of CLT systems, the
Technical Guide for the Design and Construction of Tall Wood
Building in Canada (2014) [9], and the International Building Code
(IBC 2015) [10] are notable examples. These guides, together with
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: kihaklee@sejong.ac.kr (K. Lee).
on the environment, have generated new interest in developing
multistory structures using timber as a primary material.
To expand the advantages of timber and minimize its disadvan-
tages, a new hybrid system that combines timber with concrete
has been developed as a viable concept. Extensive studies have
been conducted to evaluate the potential of this hybrid material,
known as timber concrete composite (TCC). Ollgaard et al. [4]
and Gelfi et al. [13] adopted the concrete topping technique on
wooden beams. Dias et al. [16], Jorge et al. [17], and Khorsandnia
et al. [2] carried out research on the performance of TCC beams
under short-term loading conditions. Lukaszewska et al. [11,12],
Yeoh et al. [1,3], and Deam et al. [14] developed medium to long
span LVL concrete composite beam floors including prefabricated
TCC floors. Ceccotti et al. [15], and Fragiacomo et al. [24] developed
and tested TCC floors under long-term loading conditions, while
the structural behavior of TCC slabs under fire was studied by

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.03.042
0950-0618/Ó 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
56 K. Quang Mai et al. / Construction and Building Materials 170 (2018) 55–65
Frangi et al. [20]. Recently, Boccadoro et al. [19,25] tested several
LVL concrete floors with notched connections. The outcomes of
these investigation have confirmed the potential performance of
TCC systems in structural construction, and that it may signifi-
cantly increase fire resistance, thermal mass, and enhance in-
plane rigidity.
However, most of these comprehensive experimental and
numerical analyses focused on the performance of the timber
hybrid system when the timber was employed as a beam or col-
umn. To date, very little research has focused on cross laminated
timber-concrete hybrid structures, especially CLT–concrete com-
posite floors. From a structural point of view, CLT can provide
stable and high mechanical properties in both the longitudinal
and transverse directions, and therefore should also be an attrac-
tive material for floors in mid to high-rise buildings [18]. But
before such a hybrid structure can be widely applied for that pur-
pose, the performance of CLT–concrete composite floors needs to
be much better understood.
Following the previous stage of comprehensive program on the
novel CLT concrete composite system, which returned important
results for fifteen push-out specimens, the present study focused
on investigating the performance of full-scale CLT–concrete com-
posite floors. A total of five full-scale floor specimens with different
connector angles, connector types, and connector spacing were
constructed and examined under dynamic and four-point bending
tests, in order to fully understand the vibration characteristics and
strength capacity of the CLT hybrid floors. The global performance
of the tested hybrid floors is extensively discussed, especially
focusing on vibration behaviors, bending stiffness, strength capac-
ity and other influential factors. The test results were also com-
pared with the predicted assessments of both static and dynamic
performance for all of the specimens based on the procedure in
EN 1995-1-1 [8].
2. Experimental program
2.1. Material properties
In this study, Korean domestic spruce was used to manufacture
cross laminated timber (CLT) panels which consisted of five layers
with 150 mm thickness (approximately 30 mm for each layer). To
strongly bond the timber layers together, Phenol-resorcinol
formaldehyde resin was chosen as the adhesive because of its
bonding ability under cyclic conditions. The mechanical properties
of the CLT were specified by the manufacturer, and the global prop-
erties of each of the panels were measured according to Korean
Standards (KS), and had to meet at least the E8 class of the Korean
Standards requirements. The CLT properties measured in this
experiment were approximately equal to the E12 class in the Kor-
ean Standards (Table 1).
A total of five cylindrical specimens 200 mm  100 mm in
height and diameter were made and tested to investigate the char-
acteristic properties of the concrete, in accordance with ASTM C39
(Standard Test Method for Compressive Strength of Cylindrical
Concrete Specimens) [6,7]. The stress-strain curves of the five com-
pressive specimens were compared, and four of them exhibiting
Table 1
Mechanical properties of the CLT (MPa).
Class Bending Tension parallel to grain Compression parallel to grain
(fb) (ft) (fc)
E8 8.2 4.1 9.6
E10 10 6 11.2
E12 12.4 8.2 12
similar results were collected to determine the concrete’s proper-
ties. The average compressive strength of the concrete specimens
was 27.29 Mpa. The physical properties of the concrete are shown
in Fig. 1 and are summarized in Table 2.
Shear connectors play a vital role in the innovative hybrid CLT-
concrete composite floor, by transferring shear forces among the
concrete and CLT elements, as well as avoiding detachment mech-
anisms. In the first part of this comprehensive study (push-out
experiment), three common types of connection (Total thread con-
nector with cylindrical head (SC), Coach screw (B), and VB connec-
tor (SFS)) were considered for both their strength capacity and
practical aspects, (such as feasibility and cost). In the second stage,
two connectors which showed impressive strength and slip modu-
lus performance were selected, and their specifications are indi-
cated in Fig. 2. The mechanical properties of the two connectors
are summarized in Table 3.
2.2. CLT-concrete floor specimen description
To evaluate the capability of the hybrid CLT-concrete floor, a
total of five full-scale floors were fabricated with the same dimen-
sions, 900 mm  6000 mm in width and length. The length of the
composite floors was chosen to meet the typical short-span dimen-
sions of an office building, and 900 mm is the typical width of a CLT
panel available in Korea. Among the five specimens, four were a
hybrid CLT-concrete floor, with varying connector type, angle
(45° and 90°), and spacing, and the remainder was just CLT, consid-
ered the standard specimen. A concrete topping of 100 mm thick-
ness was chosen so that the centroid of the composite cross section
was around the interface of the CLT and concrete.
Longitudinal and transverse bars of 10 mm diameter and 200
mm spacing were also used to confine the concrete and prevent
creeping cracks. To minimize the effect of connector insertion into
the CLT, lead holes with a round diameter 2 mm smaller than the
connector diameter were drilled to ensure the quality of the CLT,
and that the connectors were in the right position [8]. Details of
the five specimens are listed in Table 4 and Fig. 3; the ‘‘B” and ‘‘SFS”
designations indicate the type of connector, and the following
notations represent the angle and the spacing of the connector.
2.3. Test set-up
The details of the test setup for the 4-point bending experiment
of the CLT-concrete composite floor specimens is provided in Fig. 4.
The bending load was imposed using a vertical hydraulic actuator
of 500 kN with a maximum stroke length of 250 mm, controlled by
a load cell. In order to generate movement just in the vertical direc-
tion, this hydraulic actuator was fixed to a symmetrical steel reac-
tion frame. Two thin rubber plates were also provided to ensure
that a uniformly distributed load would be transferred to the spec-
imens, and to avoid crushing in the concrete surface. The compos-
ite floor specimens were supported by two pinned connections
which were able to rotate to represent the actual boundary condi-
tions of the CLT floor.
A total of eight LVDTs (four LVDTs with a stroke of 200 mm, and
the remainder with a stroke of 20 mm) were installed in the hybrid
composite floor to measure the relative movements of the CLT and
Compression perpendicular to grain Elastic modulus
(fp) (E)
2.5 8000
2.5 10000
3.5 12000
 K. Quang Mai et al. / Construction and Building Materials 170 (2018) 55–65 57

opening of the floor, and the remaining two (u7 and u8) were used
to monitor the relative movement between the CLT and concrete at
the supports. An important aspect of these experiments was to
observe the behavior of the elastic or plastic connectors through-
out the specimens. Three layers of strain gauges were installed in
the floor specimens, at connectors, longitudinal bars, and trans-
verse bars, with over forty strain gauges for each hybrid specimen.
The loading procedure applied in the tests was carried out in
accordance with EN ISO 26891 [5] and is shown in Fig. 5c. The
experiment was performed under force-controlled up to 70% of
the estimated ultimate load (Fest), and then reverted to the dis-
placement control regime until the specimen failed. This switching
in load control regime helps to capture softening failure in the
tested specimens. To prevent initial slip or slack failures due to
internal friction force between the CLT and concrete, an unloading
state (0.4Fest) was applied.
To measure modal parameters such as natural frequencies,
mode shapes and damping ratios, the dynamic testing was per-
Fig. 1. Stress-strain curves in the compression test. formed under the Force Vibration Test, using a rubber hammer to
produce excitations. Up to five piezoelectric accelerometers with
the sensitivity of 1008 mV/g, and frequency range of 0.05–1500
Table 2
Properties of the concrete.
Hz, were used to obtain signals from the hybrid floors. As shown
in Fig. 5a, they were attached along the top center line of the floor
Compressive Strain at comp. strength Modulus of elasticity specimens, which equally divided the specimens into six segments,
Strength (%) (Gpa)
to precisely determine the flexural modes. Each of these
(Mpa)
accelerometers was connected to one channel of ANYLOGGER, a
27.29 0.2065 14.92
wireless system, to transmit the responses of the specimens to a
monitoring PC. This product has sampling rate from 1 to 1000
Hz, 2.4 GHz Bluetooth transmit frequency, and was supported by
concrete panels, as shown in Fig. 5. The vertical displacement of Korea Maintenance and Control Co., Ltd. To accurately excite all
the hybrid specimens was estimated using four LVDTs which were modes of interest, different points on the surface of the specimens,
located at mid-span (u1 and u2), and under point-load (u5 and u6). including a central mid-span point, and 1/3 span points, were cho-
Two LVDTs were also setup at mid-span to measure the gap- sen to apply the impact force with the modal hammer. To avoid

a. Coach screw KOP10180 b. VB connector

(B) CS100900 (SFS)
Fig. 2. Connector’ details.

Table 3
Mechanical characteristics of connectors.

Name L B D My,k fax,k ftens,k fy,k

(mm) (mm) (mm) (N  mm) (N/mm2) (kN) (N/mm2)
B connector 180 110 10 32200 10.6 23.6 –
SFS connector 145 95 7.5 – – 16 800

where, fax,k is the characteristic extraction-resistance parameter; ftens,k is the characteristic of tensile strength; and fy,k is the yield strength of the connector; and My,k is the
characteristic yield moment.
58 K. Quang Mai et al. / Construction and Building Materials 170 (2018) 55–65

Table 4
Summary of test specimens.

No Specimen CLT Thickness Concrete thickness Connector spacing Connector angle Connector type
(mm) (mm) (mm) (mm)
1 Standard 150 – – – –
2 B-45-s150 100 150 45 Bolt
3 SFS-90-s150 100 150 90 VB connector
4 SFS-45-s150 100 150 45 VB connector
5 SFS-45-s300 100 300 45 VB connector

a. Side view b. Top view

c. Longitudinal section view

Fig. 3. Geometry of SFS-45-s150 specimen.

vertical movement of the floor, the impact forces from the rubber
hammer were gently imposed during the dynamic experiment to
prevent bounce on the support.
3. Dynamic test results and discussion
Ambient Response Testing and Modal Identification Software
(ARTeMIS modal) [22] was used to analyze the raw experimental
data. The considerable advantage of this commercial software is
that it covers various operating modal analysis techniques such
as Enhanced Frequency Domain Decomposition (EFDD), Curve-fit
frequency Domain Decomposition (CFDD), and Stochastic Sub-
space Identification-Unweighted Principal Component (SSI-UPC)
[21]. In addition to this software, Fast Fourier-Transform (FFT)
algorithms available in other software (for example Matlab
R2017a or OriginPro v8.5) were also applied to transform the col-
lected responses in the time domain into the frequency domain
in order to double-check the modal analysis results.
Both approaches exhibited equivalent results, and the natural
frequencies of the composite specimens are summarized in Table 5.
As mentioned above, three various locations on the surface of the
floor were chosen to strike with the hammer, five times for each
location, and the natural frequency was calculated by the average
of the three best results. A frequency bandwidth below 100 Hz,
which contributed significantly to the perceptible vibration
response, is obviously presented in Fig. 6.
In general, the natural frequency of all the specimens varied
from 8 Hz to 12 Hz, which was below the range of frequency that
humans can perceive (4 –8 Hz as specified in [8]). To be more
specific, the standard floor specimen (only CLT) had the lowest
value of fundamental frequency with 8.775 Hz. This frequency
value is still above the limits specified in the Eurocode 5 standard
for timber (EN 1995-1-1), which requires a special investigation for
residential floors that have a principal frequency below 8 Hz [8].
However, in the CLT handbook [23], it is noted that the natural fre-
quency requirement for CLT floors is above 9 Hz, and for satisfac-
tory CLT floors with a concrete topping was usually above 10 Hz.
The floor specimens prepared with 100 mm of topping concrete,
were found to be superior and satisfied the standard requirements,
with a fundamental frequency around 12 Hz. It is obvious that the
hybrid floor system’s mass will be the crucial factor governing the
fundamental frequency. For the hybrid specimens B-45-s150 and
SFS-45-s150, there were no apparent differences in the natural fre-
quency, which were 12.01 Hz and 12.03 Hz, respectively. The dif-
ferences in the fundamental frequency of specimens with the
same layout but different spacing (SFS-45-s150 and SFS-45-s300
specimen) was minor, with only 4.6% in difference. The same trend
was observed for two specimens when the layout of the connector
was changed from 45° (SFS-45-s150) and 90° (SFS-90-s150), with
only 3.2% difference. With the same number of connectors, the
 K. Quang Mai et al. / Construction and Building Materials 170 (2018) 55–65 59

a. Side view of test set-up

b. Front view of test set-up

Fig. 4. CLT–concrete floor test set-up.

sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
SFS-45-s300 specimen and SFS-90-s150 specimen exhibited a sim- ðEIÞeff =w
p
ilar natural frequency. Therefore, it can be concluded that increas- f1 ¼ 2 ð1Þ
2l m
ing the degree of composite action in the hybrid CTL–concrete floor
(longitudinal stiffness) has little effect on improving the natural where, l and w are respectively the hybrid floor’s span and width in
frequency. m, m is the mass per unit area in kg/m2, and (EI)eff is the equivalent
The first order flexural frequency of a residential floor, f1, may longitudinal bending stiffness of the specimen in Nm2/m. As speci-
be determined based on EN 1995-1-1 design guidelines [8], which fied in the provisions, the maximum initial value of vertical vibra-
describes an approach for predicting the fundamental frequency of tion velocity (unit impulse velocity in m/s) should be accessed for
simply supported rectangular floors. residential floors having a natural frequency, f1 > 8 Hz.
60 K. Quang Mai et al. / Construction and Building Materials 170 (2018) 55–65

a. Location of accelerometer on the floor specimen

b. LVDTs location

c. Loading procedure
Fig. 5. Accelerometer, typical LVDTs location and loading procedure.

Table 5
Summary of dynamic test results.

Specimen Natural frequency, f1,Loci (Hz) Avarage Predicted Error

f1,avg (Hz) f1,Eu5 (Hz) (%)
f1,Loc1 f1,Loc2 f1,Loc3 f1,Loc4 f1,Loc5
Standard – – – 8.75 8.8 8.775 8.854 0.90
B-45-s150 – – 11.96 12.06 – 12.01 10.05 16.32
SFS-45-s150 12.09 12.05 11.99 12.02 11.99 12.03 9.82 18.37
SFS-45-s300 11.72 11.75 11.53 – 11.59 11.65 9.07 22.15
SFS-90-s150 11.50 11.51 11.53 11.45 11.42 11.48 6.65 42.07
 K. Quang Mai et al. / Construction and Building Materials 170 (2018) 55–65 61

a. B – 45 – s150 b. SFS – 45 – s150

c. SFS – 45 – s300 d. SFS – 90 – s150

e. Standard specimen
Fig. 6. Frequency response obtained from the measurement of floor specimens.

v < bðf 1 f1Þ

ð2Þ tive stiffness in the longitudinal and transverse floor axes, f is the
modal damping ratio of the specimens. The results from all of the
4ð0:6n40 þ 0:4Þ hybrid composite floor specimens satisfied the necessary vibra-
v¼ ð3Þ tional performance according to the Eurocode 5 requirements.
mwl þ 200
Except for the SFS-90-s150 specimen, there was reasonable agree-
("  # )0:25 ment between the predicted fundamental frequency and the test
2
w 40 ðEIeff Þl results for all hybrid floors, within a margin of 22%. The prediction
n40 ¼  1 ð4Þ
l f1 ðEIeff Þw for the SFS-90-s150 specimen was marked different, likely due to
insufficient calculation of the effective bending stiffness. Table 5
where b is a dependent parameter and can be determined from summarizes the comparison between the predicted natural fre-
Fig. 7.2 in EN 1995-1-1 [8], (EIeff)l and (EIeff)w are respectively effec- quencies and the test results for all specimens.
62 K. Quang Mai et al. / Construction and Building Materials 170 (2018) 55–65

4. Four-point bending test results and discussion (SLS) and ultimate load stage (ULS) for typical residential and
non-residential buildings. To be more specific, as specified in Kor-
4.1. Bending stiffness and load carrying capacity ean Standard, the design loads for a typical residential floor are:
X
n
The load-displacement curves for five full-scale composite floor xSLS ¼ ðgÞ þ qL ð5Þ
specimens, obtained from the four-point bending tests, are exhib- i¼1

ited in Fig. 7. The average value of the two midspan LVDTs in both
sides of the specimens was used to determine the global deforma- X
n
xULS ¼ cg ðgÞ þ cq qL ð6Þ
tion of each specimen. In general, the performance of all the spec- i¼1
imens exhibited adequate capacity under the service load stage

a. Load-carrying capacity for all specimens b. B - 45 - s150 specimen

c. SFS - 45 - s150 specimen d. SFS - 45 - s300 specimen

e. SFS - 90 - s150 specimen f. Standard specimen

Fig. 7. Load-deflection responses for all of the hybrid floor specimens.
 K. Quang Mai et al. / Construction and Building Materials 170 (2018) 55–65
P
where, ni¼1 g is the sum of the permanent load, from the slab, inte-
rior partition, electric devices and water, which is usually equal to
5200 N/m2, qL = 2450 N/m2 is the live load, cg ¼ 1:2 and cg ¼ 1:6
are the combination design load factors. The uniform distributed
loads are then transformed to the four-point bending loads based
on the equivalent bending deflection criterion, F ¼ ð3  xi  LÞ=4.
Thus, the load levels corresponding to the design load for SLS and
ULS in this study are 30 kN and 39.8 kN, respectively. This indicates
that for the design load levels of both residential and office build-
ings, all of the hybrid specimens were still under the linear-elastic
range.
As shown in Table 6, the bending strength of the floor speci-
mens with concrete topping were remarkably enhanced, compared
with the standard specimen, with only five layers of CLT. With 100
mm of concrete topping on the CLT panel, the bending capacity of
specimen SFS-45-s300 and SFS-90-s150 was approximately double
than that of the standard specimen. Similarly, specimens using SFS
and a bolt connector, with a 45° layout and 150 mm of connector
spacing, showed superior strength, 234.79 kN and 247.32 kN,
respectively. The experimental results were positive because the
composite specimens exhibited high ductility, with very late
tensile-bending failure in the CLT panels. The positive outcomes
for the hybrid composite floors is because the strength advantages
of both materials were combined, and the concrete contributes to
the increasing stiffness of the floor system.
Table 7 summarizes the estimated bending stiffness and degree
of composite action (DCA) for the tested floor specimens. The
bending stiffness of the test series was calculated from the mid-
span deflection at two load levels, of 10% and 40% of maximum
load capacity (Eq. (7)). The degree of composite action was esti-
mated to be in Eq. (8).
d ¼ ½Fa  ð3L2  4a2 Þ=48EI ð7Þ
DCA ¼ ½ðEIeff  EI0 Þ=ðEI1  EI0 Þ ð8Þ
Here, EI0 , EI1 and EIe ff are respectively the bending stiffness of
the non-composite, full composite, and effective composite
section.
Considering all of the CLT–concrete composite floors, the use of
a 45° inclined layout was more effective than the use of a vertically
placed layout. The specimen SFS-90-s150 exhibited lower stiffness,
which resulted in a lower DCA than the specimen SFS-45-s300,
which used the same number of connectors, but a different con-
nection layout. This observation is consistent with the results of
the fifteen push-out tests in the first phase conducted by the
authors. As observed in the test results, the connector spacing
has an essential role in enhancing the loading capacity of compos-
ite floors. With the same configurations but half different connec-
tor spacing, the bending strength of specimen SFS-45-s150 was
over one and a half times the strength of specimen SFS-90-s300
(234.79 kN and 152.12 kN respectively). It is worth emphasizing
that by using 150 mm of connector spacing, both B-45-s150 and
SFS-45-s150 had superior strength, and could likely have achieved
full DCA, irrespective of the connection type.
Table 6
Summary of four-point bending test results.
Specimen At 0.4 Fmax Maximum load
Fmax (kN)
0.4 Fmax d0:4F max (mm)
Standard 24.4 33.29 61.22
B-45-s150 98.6 20.86 247.32
SFS-45-s150 93.44 19.98 234.79
SFS-45-s300 60.24 13.78 152.12
SFS-90-s150 68.22 16.44 170.45
63
4.2. Cracking and failure observations
The common failure patterns for all of the hybrid floor speci-
mens were visually detected and are indicated in Fig. 8. For all
tested specimens, the tension and shear failure mechanisms, which
formed in the CLT region between the two load application point
locations, were predominant while the concrete members likely
remained undamaged until maximum load was reached. The bend-
ing failure started in the CLT at the location connecting two plies
(finger joints). This failure was triggered as the load increased,
and the rolling shear failure subsequently propagated in the next
transverse layer, causing localized layer delamination (Fig. 8d). At
this loading phase, the floor specimens, especially the hybrid com-
posite specimens, were able to resist more bending load and as a
result, a phase of increased loading was recorded after a signifi-
cantly abrupt load (Fig. 7).
Regarding concrete failure, except for the SFS-45-s300 speci-
men, which showed long hairline cracks, and a large gap opening,
the remaining samples exhibited few cracks and no observable
gap. This could lead to the important conclusion that the connector
spacing needs to be provided close enough to not only avoid sepa-
ration of the CLT and concrete, but also to maximize the strength of
the hybrid floors.
For a better understanding of the failure mechanism in the
tested specimens, several strain gauges were attached to the con-
nections as well as the longitudinal steel bars mentioned in the test
setup section. After the early stage of the loading phase, with-
drawal of the connectors located in the near two end regions of
the hybrid floors had begun and cracking sounds at this stage were
recorded. This load level was around 125 kN for B-45-s150 and
SFS-45-s150, and in SFS-90-s150 and SFS-45-s300 was approxi-
mately 75 kN. The observations were entirely consistent with the
small reductions in bending stiffness illustrated in Fig. 7b and c.
4.3. Analytical predictions
A mechanical analysis of CLT–concrete floors can be performed
by combining both the shear analogy method and the c-method, or
effective stiffness method. The shear analogy procedure for deter-
mining the CLT panel properties, which considers the rolling shear
stiffness effect in transverse layers, is specified in the US CLT Hand-
book [23]. The c-method presented in the Eurocode 5 for timber [8]
can be practically used for calculating the effective bending stiff-
ness of a composite section, taking into account the connection
efficiency factor.
The effective bending stiffness (EIeff) of the hybrid CLT–concrete
floors was calculated as follows:
X
n
EIeff ¼ ðEIÞi þ ci Ei Ai a2i ð9Þ
i¼1
 1
Ei Ai si
ci¼1 ¼ 1 þ p2  ð10Þ
ki L2
Mid-span deflection End slip-left End slip-right
dF max (mm) mLeft (mm) mright (mm)
100.26 – –
74.77 0.29 0.37
79.28 1.39 1.24
63.86 10.59 2.01
110.53 6.07 4.93
64 K. Quang Mai et al. / Construction and Building Materials 170 (2018) 55–65

Table 7
Estimation of bending stiffness and degree of composite action (DCA).

Specimen Bending stiffness Predicted bending stiffness Error

2 (EIeff ;Eu5 -MN.m2) (%)
EI0:4F max (MN.m ) DCA (%)
(EI0:4F max ¼ EIeff )

Standard 0.2712 – 0.30375 12.00

B-45-s150 1.6056 100 1.3138 18.17
SFS-45-s150 1.6366 100 1.2578 23.15
SFS-45-s300 1.4926 94.19 1.0898 26.98
SFS-90-s150 1.3782 84.72 0.6098 55.75

a. B - 45 - s150 and SFS - 45 - s150 b. SFS - 90 - s150 specimen

c. SFS - 45 - s300 d. Standard specimen

Fig. 8. Typical failures in all of the hybrid floor specimens.

where, (EI)i and Ai are the bending stiffness and the section area of
concrete (i = 1) and CLT (i = 2) calculated by the shear analog
method; ki is the slip modulus of the connectors; si is the spacing
of the connectors; and ai is the distance between the centroid axis
of the section to the centroid axis of each element member:
capacity of the hybrid floors. It is also worth emphasizing that it
is important to consider the transverse layer effect when measur-
ing the performance of the CLT panels, but this is less crucial in the
CLT–concrete composite floors, especially for a floor with high span
to depth ratio.

E2 A2 ðhc þ hclt Þ=2

ai¼1 ¼
c1 E1 A1 þ c2 E2 A2
c1 E1 A1 ðhc þ hclt Þ=2
ai¼2 ¼
c1 E1 A1 þ c2 E2 A2
To make a direct comparison, the effective bending stiffness of
the tested floor specimens was obtained, and is listed in Table 7.
The predictive loading and displacement capacity of the floor spec-
imens was also computed and is shown in Fig. 7, including the
results for the full composite action and non-composite action
assumption. In general, the analytical results obtained from a com-
bination of methods are acceptable for practical design procedures.
There was a reasonable variability in the difference between
predicted and experimental results, below 26% except for the
SFS-90-s150 specimen. This once again confirms that the slip mod-
ulus of the connection plays a crucial role when predicting the
ð11Þ 5. Conclusions
The primary objective of this study was to investigate the per-
formance of innovative hybrid CLT–concrete floors for practical
ð12Þ
applications in high-rise buildings. Five full-scale floor specimens
with various influencing parameters were constructed and tested
under dynamic and static loading conditions. The following main
points were drawn from the results of this investigation:
a) The fundamental natural frequency of all the hybrid floor
specimens varied from 8.5 to 12 Hz, which were within
the range limits for vibrational performance in residential
floors. The principal frequency of the floor increased signifi-
cantly with 100 mm of concrete topping, to around 25%
higher than specimens without the topping. In the compar-
ison with added mass, which appears to have a dominant
 K. Quang Mai et al. / Construction and Building Materials 170 (2018) 55–65
effect on floor vibrational performance, the increasing
degree of composite action in the composite specimens
had an insignificant influence on improving dynamic charac-
teristics. The damping ratio of the composite floors was
around 1%, and will likely be decreased with additional con-
crete topping.
b) The hybrid CLT–concrete floor specimens exhibited a signif-
icantly enhanced bending capacity, from three to five times
higher, compared with the CLT floor specimen, which were
designed for a typical office floor. This enhancement indi-
cates the potential of this hybrid system, which is sufficient
for application in high-rise buildings with long spans.
Among the various sample composite floors, the specimens
with connection layouts of 45° retained high strength and
were able to achieve a full degree of composite action,
regardless of the type of connectors. A combination of bend-
ing and shearing failure was dominant in the CLT, while
damage to the concrete was minor, with little flexural hair-
line cracks at the failure stage.
c) The analytical predictions based on shear analogy and c-
method generally underestimated the capacity of the hybrid
composite specimens within a margin of around 20%. For the
CLT–concrete composite floor with a high span to depth
ratio (above 18), the transverse layer effect in CLT was found
to be less important.
Finally, it is worth emphasizing that together with the previous
push-out experiments conducted by the same authors, this study
firstly provides significant information about the structural perfor-
mance of hybrid CLT–concrete floor systems, and as such can be a
useful reference for practical application. In the next stage, a long-
term behavior and analysis procedure will be employed to provide
a comprehensive understanding of this promising floor system.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by a grant (17CTAP-C115068-02)
from Architecture & Urban Development Research Program funded
by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Korean
government.
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